d Adhemar Viscount of Limoges,
and Achard the lord of Chaluz, not because he desired, but because he
was forced by Limoges his suzerain. Another forced labourer was Sir
Gilles de Gurdun, who had been found by Saint-Pol doing work in Poictou
and won over after a few trials.

Now, when King Richard had been some four, nearly five, years at home,
neither nearer to his rest nor fitter for it than he had been when he
landed, he got word from the south that a great treasure had been found
in the Limousin. A man driving the plough on a hillside by Chaluz had
upturned a gold table, at which sat an emperor, Charles or another, with
his wife and children and the lords of his council, all wrought in fine
gold. 'I will have that golden emperor,' said Richard, 'having just made
one out of clay. Let him be sent to me.' He spoke carelessly, as they
all thought, simply to get in his gibe at the new Emperor of the Romans,
his nephew, whom he had caused to be chosen; and seeing that that was
not the treasure he craved, it is like enough. But somebody took his
word into Languedoc, and somebody brought back word (Saint-Pol's word)
that the Viscount of Limoges, as suzerain of Chaluz, claimed
treasure-trove in it. 'Then I will have the Viscount of Limoges as
well,' said Richard. 'Let him be sent to me, and the table with him.'

The Viscount did not go. 'We have him, eh, we have him!' cheered
Saint-Pol, rubbing his hands together.

But the Viscount, 'Be not so very sure. He may send Gaston or Mercadet.
Or if the fit is on him he may come in force. We cannot support that. I
believe that you have played a fool's part, Saint-Pol.'

'I am playing a gentleman's part,' replied the other, 'to entrap a
villain.'

'Your villain is six foot two inches, and hath arms to agree,' said the
Viscount, a dry man.

'We will lay him by the heels, Viscount; we will lop those long arms,
cold-blooded, desperate tyrant. He has brought two lovely ladies to
misery. Now let him know misery.' Thus Saint-Pol, feeling very sure of
himself.

* * * * *

The Queen was at Cahors all this time, living in a convent of white
nuns, probably happier than she had ever been in her life before. Count
John kept her informed of all Richard's offences; Saint-Pol, you may
take my word for it, was so exuberantly on her side that it must be
almost an offence in her to refuse him. But she, in a pure mood of
abnegation, would hear nothing against Kin